the Carthaginians spake evil of Hannibal because he alwayes went unlaced and open at his stomack others jeered at Julius Caesar because he went ungirt All this is but a small matter in respect of what the Commons in Commonwealths have put upon their Leaders in comparison of the multitude of their Senators they have persecuted banished and put to death in recompence of the many services they have done for them and the many miseries afflictions and troubles they have sustained for them and their Country If that great Greek Orator Demosthenes should arise at this time well might he say over again what he once said in this case complain of the peoples ingratitude for after he had been a firm shield defence and protection to his Countrey and a Real deliverance to the City of Athens he was by the Rout unjustly banished as if he had been a Thief or Malefactor Socrates was bewitched Hannibal was so evil treated of his Countrey-men that he was forced to banish or absent himself from them and wander through the World begging and miserably ended his dayes Even so the Romans served Camillo the Greeks Lycurgus and Solon one of the which was stoned to death and the other after one Eye plucked out banished a a Murtherer Moses and many other Saints often had experience of the mad fury of the giddy-headed multitude but if they lived in our dayes they might complain a thousand times more then in their dayes they had occasion But as we do breath forth and openly proclaim the fooleries and mis-deeds of the giddy and fickle-headed Commons it is not reason we should hide the errors and vanities of many Judges and Governours of the people how they become wicked and corrupted amongst which some are unjust out of fear of distasting a Prince or great Lord and do as Pilate did not to incur the anger of Tiberius Caesar he condemned to death the spotless Lamb Christ Jesus Others are corrupted by love friendship and favour as Herod the Tetrarch who for love to please the foolish fancy of a Maid condemned to death innocent Saint John Baptist although he knew he was blameless Others are led out of the way by a mortal rancor and hatred that possesseth them As that Prince and High-priest who commanded St. Paul to be smiten on the face whilest he was pleading at the Bar in his own defence Other whiles they are bribed and blinded with Gold and Silver as the Son of that great prophet Samuel This is such a contagious Disease is taking and of great account and that even amongst the most precise all with a good will do receive presents says the prophet all holds out their hands for gifts as the physitian if little money little health they observe not the course of Justice towards Orphans neither do they judge aright the cause of the Widdows And in another place he sayes Woe be to you that suffer your selves to be corrupted and suborned with bribes intreaties rancor or friendship and for the same do make of the good evil and of the evil good of darkness light and of light darkness Cursed be ye that do not judge according to the justness of the cause but lookest upon the persons and givest Sentence according to the gifts with which ye are bribed ye that shut your Eyes to equity and set them wide open to bribes ye that do not guide your selves according to the dictates of Reason but according to your affections payment and according as your own appetites or wills shall rule ye are very diligent in rich mens concernments but do delay neglect and defer the causes of the poor ye are very sharp and austier against the poor man but soft and flexable if against the rich which brings me to what the wise man said That if the poor man speak no man will hear but asks who was it If the rich man speaks every one sayes such a man speaks well Oh how gallantly hath he spoken every one is pleased with his Language every one praises him to the heighth All is but a Scifer all is Air in a poor man in respect of the pretences of these great men in respect also of the Wormes of preferment which gnawes the Entrailes of such as are trusted in this publick Honour and Dignity for they presently would their Sons what the Mother of the Sons of Zebede desired hers might be command Lord that my two Sons may sit one at thy Right-hand and the other at thy Left-hand in the Kingdom of Heaven even so do they desire that their Children may succeed them in their Governments and precedencies although oftentimes they are simple and uncapable The Prophet Jeremiah speaks of the Judges and Magistrates especially of Common-wealths that they enriched ennobled themselves and endeavoured to speak their own ends before they would judge the cause of the Orphans and poor Is it not reason saith the Holy Ghost that I should avenge my self of such men Hear what the holy Spirit sentenceth by the mouth of Saint James against them at the day of judgement Seeing thou haste destroyed the innocent and just and thou haste spent thy time in all sorts of pastimes delights and pleasures and ever haste endeavoured thy hearts content in this life It was all false saith our Lord for from henceforth thou shalt sigh weep groan and howl being surrounded with Torments your Riches shall perish your Garments the Moaths shall eat your Gold and your Silver is rusted and that rust shall rise up in judgement against you shall eat and consume your flesh as a fire because the tears sighs and groans of the Widdows and Father less came up to my Throne Here we see the complaints of the Prophets and holy Apostles against the corrupted and mercenary Judges This is the Sentence which God hath pronounced against them and such evil doers Now there remains to our serious view nothing worth our notice but how it fares with married people what a contented life do they lead after we have diligently searched the lives of the principal conditions of the World it is a certain and known thing that if we will in our phansies imagine or compose in our understandings an Idea pattern or copy of a happy Marriage well endowed with all things can be desired as Plato did in his Reipublick or as Saint AVGVSTINE did his in Civitate Dei that in appearance there is nothing in the World that can be compared to the delights pleasures pastimes and quietness which attend a Married life That this may be true no man can deny for with them the good and bad fortune is in common each participates in the others condition the Bed is common the Children common there is such a conformity betwixt them their hearts mindes and affections so that two bodies two souls seem to be one and if we do receive a contentment a pleasure and a delight when we impart to our intimate friends our negotiations and our passages How
suffitiently serve not only for admiration of all men but for a terror to all cruell and blood-thirsty Homicides and such as set little esteem of the life of a man the which is so abhorred and abominated by the Omnipotent God that he doth many times permit that the bruit beast shall be executors of his divine justice and not only so but seachers out of Homicides as will evedently appear by the ensuing story All the antient Historians of animals do make mention of a King called Phyrrus the which marching one day in the head of his Army casually found in the way a Dog waiting upon nay rather defending and keeping the dead body of his Master the King causing a stop to be made to behold this so strange and loyal a spectacle it was declared to him by a plowman of that Country that the Dog had been there three dayes without eating drinking or moving from the place as if he had been obliged not to forsake the Corps such was his love upon which the King commanded the body to be buryed and that the Dog should be maintained with a constant allowance in his own family as long as he lived in testimony of that love and fidelity he had shewed to his master and few dayes after it was commanded to search out for the murtherers which were not to be found at that time but it hapned a litttle after that the Captains of the Army were to make muster of their souldiers and the King would have them to passe before him that he might view their furniture and arms the Dog aformentioned after his master was inter'd did continually wait upon the Royal Person was present at the time of the souldiers passing by being in appearance very sad which he demonstrated by hanging down his head being very quiet untill he espied those that had slain his master there he with an earnest and violent furie began to bark and set upon them desiring to pull them in pecces and withall he expresed terrible howlings turning himself from one side to another and some times towards King Phyrrus stedfastly beholding him as if he demanded favour and justice for which reason the King and those about him were very suspitious that these men had been the murtherers and were imprisoned only upon this suspition who after by rigourous torments they were strictly examined confessed the fact and received punishment due to their fault which certainly appears to be a wonder yet sets forth to us that the judgements of God are just and that he abhors and abominates murtherers and such as make light of sheding of humane blood God can and often doth make use of dumb Creatures to bring to light Homicides and execute his justice upon them I could easily produce very many examples of this kind out of the Histories both ecclesiastical and profane to demonstrate evedently that considering the Creatures there is in many of them a sort of harmony both morall as well as of naturall Philosophy which is observed by their good customes and well ordered lives according to the dictates of nature their justice temporance courage their Government as in private families and their adminisstration of justice and power in their little commonwealths their continencie and moderation in the waâ—s of nature and other parts of virtue with which they exercise themselves seriously if every man did but with care diligently consider these things he would put his hand into his bosm heartily and truly examine his own being by nature and his own conscience within and look upon the great advantage that Animals have of him in many things he shall thereby come to know more clearly his own misery and vileness Also to see his lamentable and to be pitied transformation from his being how much he is degenerated and fallen from his Original Excellency and Dignity also when he shall come to understand that he who was created Lord and chief of the Creatures is become in many respects inferior to them he will abhor his passed wicked life and earnestly strive to go beyond them in vertue and piety as much as he exceeds them in honor and dignity Because the Scribes and Pharisees did not do thus our blessed Saviour Jesus Christ calls them Sons of perdition and the Prophet Isaiah to put the Israelites in mind of their neglect of pious lives and their extreme ingratitude towards their God gives them an example of the Ox and the Ass that know their Masters crib but Israel doth not know theis God Israel doth not consider The like our Saviour seems to imply in that story of the Swine into which that Legion of Devils entred by his commission consequently to teach us that those which spend and consume their precious time in serving of vices and vitious delights as many slothful men and gluttons do who spend their lives like Swine what can such expect to come to in the end but to be a spoil to Satan and to appear as Trophiees of his Victories at the last day And truly it is a just thing that those which might have been a dwelling-place for God and a habitation for his holy Spirit and would not but rather despised and refused his most gracious favours and the like that such should be a habitation for Devils Such Swine are those which at this day do make it their glory their happinness and their Paradise in this World to procure their ease and vicious felicity such as do mask and dissemble their sinful vices under so close a cover that they are continually suspicious that they should come to light and they themselves thereby should lose their Temporal goods their Offices their Honors Dignities and Preferments if it should be suspected that they were guilty of any enormity or carnal delight Such Swine are those flattering and fawning people who spend their lives masking and giving a different hew to vice and cheating Princes and great Lords who understand no other trade but how to hide the deformed face of vice from their Kings or Lords that understanding no better he might not go out from the limits of wickedness that they may enjoy the fruits of his extravagant expences and feast upon his irregular liberality The first Article of the faith of these men is That their is no other God but their belly for all their appetites and designs are plotted meerly to delight their ungodly corps giving themselves to carnal delights Their Religion and Faith is converted into carnal liberty the Law of Christ they wish not neither do they love it his Commands they think are full of prickles and very rugged hard weighty and very sharp they do appear to such delicate palates sooth'd up in vices and soft couches they will by no means drink of our Saviour cup This wine say they is too bitter which thou givest us here O Lord what an evill Breviary doth their expression appear to be to any good Christian They would have a Jesus Christ cloathed with soft
Virgin Doest thou think thou shalt remain for ever which art so full of Vices when those perished in which all Vertues flourished Know of a certain one thing that I shall tell thee That if thou aboundest and persistest in Vice the Glory now thou hast they had and thou shalt be destroyed and made desolate as they were What more excellent Philosophy What more proper Examples What more true Oracles can we find then in the expressions of this Heathen Emperor a man without Faith or Evangelical-light in his Breast yet a true Moral-man Is it possible that we that were brought up in the School of Christianity and enlightned with the Grace of that Divine illuminating Spirit that we should not fear that at the day of judgement this Pagan-Emperor and many others should rise up against us and condemn us and strongly alleadge against us how little we make of the life of a Man much less of a Christian whose brotherly life ought to be more precious in our sight How many yeares hath that part of the World which we call Christendome been disquieted and troubled by Wars so that ye shall not finde a Province in all Europe that hath not been bathed nay almost made drunk with the aboundance of Christian blood that hath bin shed in it There is no Sea nor River that sometime or other hath not changed its Christiline into Scarlet with the multitudes that have been destroyed And all through a pride in some and a Phanatical spirit of contradictions in others whose Religion is humour whose pretence is to fulfil their own not Gods will When Halarico King of the Gothes as Paulus Oratius that lived in those times reports when he sacked the famous City of Rome commanded Proclamation to be made That no man should dare to damnifie or plunder those that should retire or take Sanctuary in the Temples dedicated to Saint Peter and Saint Paul But in our dayes men are so inhumane that Temples will not avail nor tears nor begging favour and quarter but they shut their Ears to all and deflower Virgins force other Women and stab them and evil treat the poor Sheep of Jesus Christ Men are grown so dissolute blinde and indiscreet that without respect to Sex or Age they kill destroy and cut off the one and the other as if they willed if possible to consume even Nature it self So that considering Mans nay Christians cruelty if God were not pleased to provide Cities might be populated and guided by Counsels of animals for by little and little Man-kinde goes wasting How can a Christian with conscience having onely a politick though professing a conscientious pretence so freely attempt to kill a man or men for whom Christ died How are we so prodigal and liberal in spilling that blood to redeem purchase and preserve which our God was pleased to shed and little esteem his Is it possible that Christians should not have so much compassion of their Brethren as the fierce and bruit Beasts have of one another who seldome do hurt those of their own kinde Wolves do not fight with Wolves c. unless it be to preserve their young ones or that they are desperate for want of food yet in their greatest rage and fury they never make use of or procure other Armes then which properly Nature hath bestowed upon them They never invent such Stratagems or Engines which the Devil helps man to project for sure he was the first fomenter of them For there is no sublunary thing which the fury of Artillary doth not cast down destroy and consume For well considered this invention is not onely more dangerous then any other kinde of Armes or Engine of War in the World but is more to be feared then poyson although the very Thunder Lightning from Heaven the which is forged and composed of the four Elements be so powerful and quick yet this may in some measure be compared to it and when it comes to the utmost of its driness and when the fire takes hold of the Salt or sulphrous substance it multiplies and converts into fire and air But by reason of some humidity which remains incorporate in the Earthly substance it casts forth a Vapour by which we may perceive each Element will by force maintain its own natural jurisdiction and with the force that each Element puts forth at last heat and moisture joyned together all converts into Air the which seeing it self besieged strives to get forth and being free flies to its own Element the Air the Fire rises and forceth its passage but before it comes forth it being the strongest and purest of all the four Elements converts the other three into its own Nature from the strength of which proceeds that strange Thundring-clap at the discharging of a Gun and what ever it reacheth it breakes in pieces and converts into dust and ashes To pass by the different names of all sorts of Artillery and small Guns they call some Faulcons c. in which men me thinks erre very much to give to such diabollical Engines the names of Birds which we use for our recreations and sports they might better have called them Sathans Barrabasses and Belzebubs and the like from the inventors of them Now we have declared the passages of War What miserable lives they lead and what reward they get who hazard their lives and take great pains therein and how it is in all respects and all its effects a farther procurer of Mans affliction and sorrow Now let 's contemplate the life of Courtiers how they live that are in the Palaces of Kings Princes and great Lords And to begin with those that are near about the persons of Kings c. in what they place their greatest felicity Let 's make proof of their delights and pleasures They think there is no greater happiness in this life then the gracious Aspect of a Prince What greater favour then to see him talk with him and accompany him when they will What contentment may be compared to the Favours Treatments and Advancements which Kings and great Lords bestow on their Favourites What greater honour then to introduce a friend or stranger to the Kings presence continually to enjoy his company his embraces delights and love with other Courtly pleasures There are some so flie and cunning that are alwayes watching that they may not let pass a good opportunity of preferment for their own advantage others are in hopes to fill themselves both Corps and Purses and at last are forced to cast up all again Some exercise their Wits to invent Taxes Loans and Excises to gather together great Treasures encrease the Revenues of their Princes and line their own Bags with the spoils of the people With such men many times Princes deal as we use to do with Cattle we let them fatten and grow gross that afterwards we may feast our selves and friends upon them So do Princes suffer these men to grow rich and fill their Coffers with money
the out-side of these glorious entertainments we should be really perswaded that they alone do enjoy the pleasures and delights of this life and that all others live in perpetual anguish and trouble but if we make a further entrance into these things with a just ballance weight and with a true Rule try them we shall finde the same things which we count as steps to the heighth of felicity and which will make them arive to the top of happiness in this life These are the instruments and preparations of Vice by which they become to be more unfortunate and miserable of what validity are their rich garments and furniture gallant and honourable services and delicate Viands with all which they cannot defend themselves from the falsities and poysons which may be mixed in them by those about him We have experience thereof in our dayes Doth not Plataria write That one Pope was bewitched in his senses with a paper that was given him by a Servant for a private use to wipe Others have been poysoned by the smoak of Torches and Candles We read in ancient Histories that some Emperors durst not lie down to take their repose at night till first they had searched the Beds and diligently looked into all corners and retirements in their Bed-chambers for fear of being murthered when they were sleeping and changed their Lodging often The History of our Times can declare the like of that Tirant CROMWEL who was a diligent searcher as above-mentioned and often few of his own family knew where or in what Room he lay What a terrible gnawing and continual troublesome waking Worm is a guilty Conscience Others there are who never would consent a Barber or Chirurgeon should come near their Faces to shave their Beards least they should cut their Throats The Kings of our Times are so jealous that they dare not eat a bit without a Taster Were it not better saith Julius Caesar Dye at once then live subject to so many jealousies and fears But what felicity can any man enjoy that hath so many thousands of men at his charge under his government and protection He must watch and hear the complaints and petitions and seek the welfare of all inviting with his clemency and liberality some to be good and forcing others to be so with rigour and justice He must not be less solicitous to procure and maintain the peace and quiet of his people then couragious and valiant to defend them from the assaults in roads and treacheries of their Enemies without setting down many other the like calamities and eares which attend and surround the Royal Crowns and Scepters of Kings and Princes they command all but for the most part one or two governs them Pogio Florentino in a Discourse which he makes concerning the wicked Princes and their infidelity they commonly suffer themselves to be governed or led on by three sorts of people with which they converse which are most pleasing to them and which are most familiar with them and approved by them To begin with Flatterers which deserve the first place and because they are Capital enemies to the truth they bewitch their Souls and poyson their dispositions with such pestiferous and dangerous potions of tiranny folly and vice that all their Subjects feel the smart thereof They call their folly and rashness prudence their cruelty Justice their dissolute luxuries and uncleanness gentle sports If they are covetous they say they are provident If they are prodigal they call them liberal so that there is no vice in a King or Prince which they know not how to mask paint and glose under colour of some vertue The second are the Master-builders and inventers of Taxes Excises and Impositions the which sleep not day nor night to invent some new strange way to get money out of the common people for their Lords and Masters These invent new Dignities and Honours to be bought These take away diminish and cut them short again These petition for confiscations and condemnations against other men all their study diligence and care is to gather together win obtain and procure the Lands Goods and Inheritances of the poor people There is another kinde of men which under the pretence and covert of good do make of themselves honourable Hypocrites who have their aspect and reach so large that they are alwayes entrapping and discussing other mens lives and actions seeming to be Reformers and Enemies to vice they denounce against some good men and raise lies against others These approve such wickednesses and not onely are cause of mens loosing their Estates but many times of their lives who have deserved no such punishment for what alleadged against them neither from God nor Man for which cause the Ancients held a custome as Heâ—odiano relates to condemn for Devils and Enemies of their common weal after their deaths those Princes which in their Reins had ill governed the people and basely spent their Revenues as England may dearly lament in our age but then there was no King in Israel Also they were wont to congregate in their Temples with their Heathen-priests to petition their Gods not to take such Rulers into their Society or Community but to condemn them to infernal Furies to be tormented and chastised This custome was not onely anciently used but of latter years yet not amongst true Christians they had certain proper Curses and Execrations against such wicked protectors of the people as Antonio de Guevarra denotes who was Choronist to the Emperor of a Vice-Roy of Sicilia upon whose Tombe in revenge of his many Tirannies and base abuses they writ as followes Qui propter nos homines et propter Nostrum salutem Descendit ad inferos Truly by this little I have written mayest thou see the miseries and perplexities with which Royal Scepters are encompassed these Thornes are hidden under covert of these beautiful Crownes of Gold and seeming Rose-Beds of Government the which often are and ever ought to be green fresh and beautiful without withering that they may afford content savour and sent to all be a continual light and good example like a bright shining Lamp to the whole World for if they are infected with any muddy Vice if any necessary thing be wanting to a Lamp it presently burns sadly and dim a man had rather be in the dark then have such a light like the wickedness of princes How much the greater or how much the more sinful their Vices are so much the more are they worthy to be reprehended and reproved for them for as Plato sayes It 's not onely one sin to them in the action but a second sin and more dangerous in the Example so that if it is a hard thing for any man to be good as Hesiod said it is sure a greater difficulty for a prince to be so for the aboundance of delights pleasures and honors which they enjoy are rather Fewel to encrease then Water to asswage the burning heat of Vice
Traders in this our Theatre of the World must set down a discharge of the corrupted sophisticated and depraved Wares sold with false measures and weights even to the satisfying the utmost farthing of any abuse or cheat here the Avaritious the Thieves the Usurors which have undone some destroyed some and Pil'd others must pay in the same coyne the dammages and evils which they have done at this day the mercenary Judges which corrupted violated or blinded the eyes of Justice shall vomit up the gifts and bribes for which they did it Here the Orphans and widdows shall put up their complaints with other afflicted persons declaring before Gods Judgment Seat the exceeding injustice done to them Then the time is come in the which the Shepherds and Prelates shall give an account of their flocks recommended to their charge of the true false good and bad doctrine with which they have fed them Oh what care ought men to have of taking charge to teach Gods people for God will have a strict account of his flock at that time the evil Shepherds will say but with sufficient grief of soule and trembling with terrible feare Behold those which we mocked scoffed little esteemed and continually reprehended esteeming them fools and infamous in their course of life see how God hath received them for sons giving them part amongst his Saints and holy ones this will be the houre saith St. Jerome in the which many Stammerers Dumb and Unlearned people may be more happy then the most Eloquent and Learned many Shepherds and Herdsmen may be preferred before great Phylosophers many poore beggers before rich Princes and great Lords many simple Rusticks before the subtle nice and delicate which being seriously pondred by St. Augustine said The foolish and senslesse robbed heaven whilst the wise with their Doctrine went to Hell Oh good Christians le ts open our eyes both of soule and body and walke with continual circumspection and care that we I mean every one of us in particular may not come at last to incurre that most terrible sentence that ever was pronounced or can be possible or immaginable to be Paralleld for in comparison of the evils and miseries which will certainly come to us thereupon all humane Calamities Vexations and afflictions which in this Treatice I have mentioned are delights pleasures and pastimes in respect thereof I mean that final sentence which is the end and dolefull conclusion of the Theatre of many a mans misery mentioned by Saint Mathew 25th Chapter saying Go ye cursed of my Father into everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels before the foundations of the World was laid where they shal be tormented endles they shall desire and seek after death but shal not finde it death shall fly from them and their infirnall habitations from which good Lord deliver us Amen A short DISCOVRSE Of the Excellency and Dignity of MAN By Pedro Bouistau called Launay Translated out of French into Spanish by the Master Baltazar Peres del Castillo And lastly Translated out of Castillian into ENGLISH By Francis Farrer Merchant London Printed for Samuel Ferris and are to be sold at his shop at London-stone in Cannon-street 1663. TO THE Courteous Reader THe Author considering as I suppose that he had obligation to satisfie in some thing that Honour which in the foregoing Treatise many will object he had detracted from the Dignity of mankinde He composed this short discourse in the which he doth not onely satisfy what he never took but puts men into such a condition the which all ought to seek and strive to attaine Receive it therefore gentle Reader as thou wouldest any thing which thou esteemest or hast had experience of for in this short Tract is contained what Antiquity and what the present could honour or can admire in men Vale. The Theatre of the World AFter that God had with wonderfull providence and excellent knowledge Created the World which is the most exact setter forth of the Greatnesse Wisdome and Power of its Creator he placed man therein that he should be King Emperor and Lord overall that he had made in it that he contemplating the Excellency and greatnesse of the works might render Love Duty and Reverence to that great God who hath made all these things for his use onely to appeare gratefull for this high favour bestowed upon him by his Creator and that without desert which sets forth not only the magnificence of our God but declares his bounty and favour towards mankinde for above all creatures he would that the manner of his Creation and beginning should be different from all others that he had made that this is true no man of discretion can deny for to create the light give being to the Stars even the greatest and most excellent Creatures that those from which men doe receive most profit and outward refreshment which are the Sun the Moon and the seven Planets He onely said Let there be Light a Sun a Moon and immediately they appeared in their several sphears in the heavens in obedience to the command of their Creator with the like words he parted light from darknesse he enclosed the waters that covered the face of the Earth in one place his onely will and pleasure it was to set them bounds which they never did or ever shall passe without his command and pleasure finally his omnipotent power and holy will alone gives being to all that ever was or shall be under the cope of Heaven all Plants Trees Seeds and Animals enjoy life at his pleasure they shal live no longer than his divine bounty pleaseth but esteeming and affecting man more than all the works of his hands and resolving to imprint upon him with the pencil of his sacred wisdome an exact Effigies of his divine likenesse and that not without mature and deliberate counsell but he would create in another new manner the best and most excellent of all his Creatures here below saying Let us make man in our Image and likenesse that shall be lord of the Fishes of the Sea of the Birds of the Aire and of all the Creatures that move upon the face of the earth giving us with those words to understand the great Honour and Dignity which he gave to that little clod of clay which he had moulded with his own hands and that he would not any of the other creatures should equalize or compare with man If we proceed in this contemplation we shall finde one thing worth admiration in the manner of mans Creation and it is that to all the Animals of the Earth to all the Birds of the Heaven and to all the Fishes of the Sea he gave body and soule together when he created them which he did not to man that he might exalt him put him in the highest place of dignity honour here below He first created the body and after by his divine inspiration infused the Soule giving to understand that the Jewel